Farmshare season is in full swing, which means we've got veggies out the wazoo! And with the recent heat wave, I've been loathe to use the stove any more than necessary. Thus: salads.
Fresh pea/tomato salad
1 medium tomato, cubed
~1 cup fresh peas (1 pint unshelled)
1-2 Tbsp sour cream
fresh mint, chopped (2-3 leaves)
fresh dill weed, chopped (to taste)
lemon pepper/salt
Beet-feta salad
4 small beets, cut into bite-size slices
a handful of mustard greens, finely chopped
~1/4 cup sour cream
~1/4 cup feta cheese
honey to taste (I used 1-2 tsp)
a dash of vinegar
As always, you can adjust the amounts to suit your taste or your actual veggie supply. I thought both salads ended up tasting pretty good for my basically having made them up on the spot, but I'm sure they could be tweaked to become even better.
Now we come to one of my classic standbys for dealing with vegetables: veggie stir-fry! I like stir-fry because it's easy and works with just about any veggies you have around. The featured ingredient for this week: snow peas!
1 pint snow peas
2 carrots, julienned
1/3 of a medium white onion, cut into petal shapes
1/2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
~6 inches of garlic scape, finely chopped (or a clove or two of garlic)
Pour a little olive oil and a dab of sesame oil into a frying pan and heat until medium-hot. Add veggies and seasonings and cook just until the onions lose their sharpness, stirring frequently. About halfway through cooking, add about a tablespoon of brown bean sauce (or soy sauce) and a couple dashes of mirin. (Mirin is a somewhat sweet sauce made from sake; a pinch of brown sugar or a dime-sized dot of honey should be fine as a substitute).
Showing posts with label salad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salad. Show all posts
Friday, July 9, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Scallion Waffles and Kohlrabi Fries
OK, as promised, a new update from one of the main authors here at Entropic Kitchen. Dinner tonight was scallion waffles, kohlrabi fries, and (leftover) greensy salad with strawberry vinaigrette. Now, I have to admit that I got the waffle recipe online and actually followed it; it's easy to mess up on anything remotely bread-like, so I tend not to be too experimental when it comes to baking, etc. But in my defense, I came up with the concept of scallion waffles on my own before looking up a recipe, and had I not found one, I would have gone ahead with a regular waffle recipe with added scallions. But without further ado:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
1 cup finely chopped scallion
coarsely ground black pepper (optional, Derek's addendum)
Mix all the dry ingredients except scallions. Seperately, whisk all the wet ingredients until uniform. Then stir wet and dry mixes together just until blended (clumps are OK) and finally stir in the scallions. Waffleize as you would any other waffle.
They were very good plain, but I topped a couple of them with a bit of freshly made strawberry jam for variety. (Sidenote: Chris and his girlfriend were over yesterday and we made jam and it is fabulous!)
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The kohlrabi fries were born out of a comment my wife's coworker made, suggesting that kohlrabi might make a good french-fry vegetable. So on a whim I decided to see if this was true. I peeled and sliced a kohlrabi into fry-sized rectangular prisms and let them cook on medium high in about 1/4 inch of canola oil. After 10 or 15 minutes, they were quite brown, but soft, not crispy. At this point I began to suspect there was more to french fries that just a simple deep fry -- after all, the stuff you get at Mickey D's has been cooked already, then fried again in the restaurant. Taking a quick peek on the internet, it seems like double-frying is the way to go, so perhaps that will be a project later on. I also suspect I may have had the temperature too high, as a couple of pieces were still slightly uncooked in the middle, despite the dark brown on the outside.
Anyway, a quick salting and pat-down to remove excess oil and there they were. Kohlrabi, dark-brown and shrively, but similar enough to potato fries that I was encouraged. The flavor was a little strong, slightly turnipy, and not unpleasant, but in combination with the squishy texture just didn't seem worth the work when fresh, raw kohlrabi is so tasty and potato fries can be had at nearly any restaurant.
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Finally, this was a leftover from yesterday's dinner with Chris and his +1, but we had a salad consisting of greens, chopped veggies (broccoli, cucumbers, turnips and scallions), craisins and feta cheese. For the dressing I mixed together
(approximately)
4 Tbsp salad oil (something nutty is good; I used walnut and grapeseed oils)
6-8 Tbsp vinegar (I used honey-champagne vinegar)
strawberry jam to taste (I used probably 2 Tbsp or so)
dash of salt and pepper
The jam was still in the process of being made (I yoinked a couple of spoonfuls from the big pot on the stove) so it was nice and fresh! Obviously, the more of it you add, the sweeter and more strongly flavored your dressing will be.
Well that's it for tonight. What about you? Do you find yourself cooking more now that fresh summer produce is readily available?
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
1 cup finely chopped scallion
coarsely ground black pepper (optional, Derek's addendum)
Mix all the dry ingredients except scallions. Seperately, whisk all the wet ingredients until uniform. Then stir wet and dry mixes together just until blended (clumps are OK) and finally stir in the scallions. Waffleize as you would any other waffle.
They were very good plain, but I topped a couple of them with a bit of freshly made strawberry jam for variety. (Sidenote: Chris and his girlfriend were over yesterday and we made jam and it is fabulous!)
------
The kohlrabi fries were born out of a comment my wife's coworker made, suggesting that kohlrabi might make a good french-fry vegetable. So on a whim I decided to see if this was true. I peeled and sliced a kohlrabi into fry-sized rectangular prisms and let them cook on medium high in about 1/4 inch of canola oil. After 10 or 15 minutes, they were quite brown, but soft, not crispy. At this point I began to suspect there was more to french fries that just a simple deep fry -- after all, the stuff you get at Mickey D's has been cooked already, then fried again in the restaurant. Taking a quick peek on the internet, it seems like double-frying is the way to go, so perhaps that will be a project later on. I also suspect I may have had the temperature too high, as a couple of pieces were still slightly uncooked in the middle, despite the dark brown on the outside.
Anyway, a quick salting and pat-down to remove excess oil and there they were. Kohlrabi, dark-brown and shrively, but similar enough to potato fries that I was encouraged. The flavor was a little strong, slightly turnipy, and not unpleasant, but in combination with the squishy texture just didn't seem worth the work when fresh, raw kohlrabi is so tasty and potato fries can be had at nearly any restaurant.
------
Finally, this was a leftover from yesterday's dinner with Chris and his +1, but we had a salad consisting of greens, chopped veggies (broccoli, cucumbers, turnips and scallions), craisins and feta cheese. For the dressing I mixed together
(approximately)
4 Tbsp salad oil (something nutty is good; I used walnut and grapeseed oils)
6-8 Tbsp vinegar (I used honey-champagne vinegar)
strawberry jam to taste (I used probably 2 Tbsp or so)
dash of salt and pepper
The jam was still in the process of being made (I yoinked a couple of spoonfuls from the big pot on the stove) so it was nice and fresh! Obviously, the more of it you add, the sweeter and more strongly flavored your dressing will be.
Well that's it for tonight. What about you? Do you find yourself cooking more now that fresh summer produce is readily available?
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